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Message: <blockquote data-quote="peteyfrogboy" data-source="post: 462121" data-attributes="member: 5677">Chasing SpiritsThis is an elaboration of the backstory hashed out quickly between me and Emiko's player.Emiko floated on her back in the warm sea, looking up at the wisps of cloud creeping across the blue sky. She needed no spirit guide to tell her that the rainy season was on its way. After nearly seven score years living in and around Jukunto, she was more than familiar with the cycle of life in the small fishing village.As she watched the clouds floating by, she contemplated her own fate. For most of her life she had been engrossed by the search for her mother, a sea spirit. She had come to her father in human form and only stayed for a single year before vanishing beneath the waves again. Her father had been left to raise her on his own, though with the support of his family and neighbors it had been no great hardship. When Emiko came of age he told her about her mother and her search began.For years she had swum aimlessly, ranging up and down the coast and miles out to sea, finding nothing but the creatures of the sea. Though she was embraced by the village, she was always aware of her difference from them. There was great concern in those days about the effect the Kerajaani were going to have on the village now that their internal fighting had drawn to a close. Many feared a new invasion that might come to the shores of Akhzar Banang. Emiko shared their worries to some extent, but her mind was more often fixed on her past than her future.After her father grew old and died, one of Emiko's nephews, a shaman of some repute, asked her about her endless searching under the waves. When she told him, he offered to teach her how to speak with spirits, so that she might have a better chance of finding her mother. He cautioned her that it was no light undertaking to become a shaman, and that even with contact to the spirit world she might not ever be able to complete her quest. Undeterred, Emiko began her training.She turned out to be a very competent shaman, gaining the favor of both a many-winged air spirit and a sea dragon from the deep ocean. Even as she served the village in her new capacity, she continued the search for her mother. Even with her new ability to communicate with the spirits in the sea, she gained little ground. None of the spirits she spoke with seemed to know anything about who her mother might have been. She wondered if perhaps she had been a deep ocean spirit that had come only once and gone back to her distant home.The years rolled by, and Emiko's search became more habit than anything else. She tended to the needs of the village, watching as families changed and grew. Eventually the entire population was related to her in some distant way. The years had been good to Jukunto; the feared Kerajaani attacks never came, and the only effect the invaders had had was a new market for exported fish. New fears had arisen when the Merah Ahadiri brought war from the east, but it never reached to Akhzar Banang. **Emiko dove beneath the waves, watching as the sunlight shimmered through the blue-green water. Everything had changed, yet somehow nothing had changed. That Spring, out of nowhere, her endless search had finally borne fruit. A radiant spirit had appeared to her in human form, clad in robes of kelp and shimmering mother of pearl. The spirit had looked her over with cold eyes. There was power behind those eyes, more power than Emiko had felt from any but her own patron spirits. Finally the spirit locked her gaze with Emiko's. Her voice was as cold as her eyes: "Stop looking for me." Before Emiko had a chance to respond, her mother had melted away into the waves.After that encounter, Emiko wondered what she should do. She sought the advice of Patimaru, the eldest of Jukunto's shamen. The old woman listened quietly as Emiko told her story."It is good," she said. "This has consumed you for too long. There is more to this world than this small village. Perhaps you would do well to see more of it. Few are those who have the freedom to journey far without worry. Perhaps she wanted to set you free."**Emiko found it hard to leave her home. She had been here for so many years that she found it hard to imagine being anywhere else. But maybe a change in scenery was what she needed to gain some perspective on her life. The question now was where to go.As if in answer to her thought, a strange fish swam up to her. Its reptilian head and clawed forelegs identified it as a young dragon, a rare thing to see, let alone at such close range. The golden-scaled creature circled her twice, then swam off to the west. Emiko watched it for a moment, unsure what to make of the display. The creature turned around, returned and circled her once more, then set off to the west again.The shaman knew a sign when she saw it, and especially when she saw it twice. She set off in the wake of the dragon, wondering where it would lead her.</blockquote>

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